Tesla Motor’s Gigafactory is slowly emerging from the parched Nevada landscape. New building permits acquired by Buildzoom reveal the scale of what will in 2017 will be the largest battery factory in the world. They also mention the Gigafactory’s construction code name: Project Tiger.
According to the documents, 140,000 cubic yards of dirt will be moved to lay the foundation of the plant, and an additional 200,000 cubic yards of dirt will be displaced to install a retention basin (basically, an artificial lake that retains rain and drainage). To put that in perspective, moving 340,000 cubic yards of dirt would require 200 dump truck loads a day for more than 4 months straight.
Merely laying the foundation will cost Tesla $16 million. And the first phase of structural steel construction should end up costing $15 million more.
Underscoring the almost superhuman size of the project, the temporary infrastructure Tesla needs at the site just to support the construction is pricey: more than $2.3 million so far is being allotted to temporary power and office facilities for the crew.
The permits are issued by Storey County, Nevada, a small area just east of Reno that won a nationwide bidding/schmoozing war to host Elon Musk’s latest vision. These documents represent the first of a number of building phases, and Buildzoom will update our data as new documents become available.
Take a look at the details on the Gigafactory’s Buildzoom profile.
image via Tesla Motors
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